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List of school districts in Iowa

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This is a list of school districts in Iowa, sorted by Area Education Agencies (AEA). Districts are listed by their official names, though several schools use "Schools" in their name or website rather than "Community School District". As of July 2020, this list has not been expanded to include former school districts.

School districts have several classifications. They are counted as separate governments by the U.S. Census Bureau. Iowa has no school systems dependent on another layer of government.[1]

Background

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In the early 1900s the state had 4,873 school districts. The state government passed the Consolidated School of Law of 1906 and this figure fell to 4,863 in 1908, 4,839 in 1922,[2] and 4,558 in 1953.[3] That year some additional laws were passed that contributed to reducing this further, and so this fell further to 458 as of July 1, 1965; that year another law made providing a high school mandatory for a school district,[2] which meant school districts that had one room schoolhouses were required to consolidate.[4] The deadline for such mergers to be finalized was April 1, 1966, with mergers themselves to occur on July 1 of that year.[5]

By July 1, 1980, the number of districts was down to 443.[6] In 1984, there were 437 school districts in the state that operated high schools.[7] In 1990 the total number of school districts was 430.[6] In fall 1995 the number of school districts operating high schools was down to 353, and in 1995 670 was the median enrollment K-12 of an Iowa school district.[7] An Iowa Department of Education consultant named Guy Ghan referred to the 1990s school district mergers as the "third wave".[8]

The total number of school districts was 365 on July 1, 2005.[6] In the 2016–2017 school year there were 333 school districts, an 11% decrease from the same figure in 2000.[9]

Circa the 1980s school districts began agreements to share resources, such as particular employees, or "whole grade sharing" (where students of one or more grade levels are sent to a different school district to get their education). In 2005 Tom Vilsack, the Governor of Iowa, proposed that requirements for school districts to have certain numbers of students or sharing employees as ways of reducing local government spending, though Vilsack never enacted those requirements. In 2007 Josh Nelson of The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier wrote that "Lately, consolidation hasn't been as big of an issue compared to previous years."[4]

By 2016 population losses in rural areas have fueled further school district consolidations.[10] By 2017 there had been school districts that had formed from different generations of school consolidations.[11]

Central Rivers AEA

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Black Hawk County

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Bremer County

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Buchanan County

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Butler County

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Cerro Gordo County

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Chickasaw County

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Floyd County

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Franklin County

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Grundy County

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Hancock County

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Hardin County

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Marshall County

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Mitchell County

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Poweshiek County

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Tama County

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Winnebago County

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Worth County

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Wright County

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Grant Wood AEA

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Benton County

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Cedar County

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Iowa County

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Johnson County

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Jones County

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Linn County

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Washington County

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Great Prairie AEA

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Appanoose County

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Davis County

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Des Moines County

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Henry County

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Jefferson County

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Keokuk County

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Lee County

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Louisa County

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Lucas County

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Mahaska County

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Monroe County

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Van Buren County

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Wapello County

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Wayne County

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Green Hills AEA

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Adair County

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Adams County

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Carroll County

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Cass County

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Clarke County

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Decatur County

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Fremont County

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Harrison County

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Mills County

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Montgomery County

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Page County

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Pottawattamie County

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Ringgold County

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Shelby County

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Taylor County

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Union County

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Wayne County

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Heartland AEA

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Audubon County

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Boone County

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Carroll County

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Dallas County

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Guthrie County

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Jasper County

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Madison County

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Marion County

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Polk County

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Shelby County

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Story County

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Warren County

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Keystone AEA

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Allamakee County

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Chickasaw County

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Clayton County

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Delaware County

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Dubuque County

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Fayette County

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Howard County

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Winneshiek County

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Mississippi Bend AEA

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Cedar County

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Clinton County

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Jackson County

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Louisa County

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Muscatine County

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Scott County

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Northwest AEA

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Cherokee County

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Crawford County

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Ida County

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Lyon County

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Monona County

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O'Brien County

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Osceola County

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Plymouth County

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Sioux County

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Woodbury County

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Prairie Lakes AEA

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Buena Vista County

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Calhoun County

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Clay County

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Dickinson County

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Emmet County

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Greene County

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Hamilton County

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Humboldt County

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Kossuth County

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Palo Alto County

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Pocahontas County

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Sac County

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Webster County

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Wright County

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See also

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References

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  • Anderson, Christopher L. (2009). School District Reorganization in Iowa: Considerations for Administrators, School Boards, and Communities (PhD thesis) (PDF) (Dissertation). Drake University.

Reference notes

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  1. ^ "Iowa" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Anderson (2009), p. 18
  3. ^ "DISTRICT NAME CHANGES". Iowa Department of Education. Archived from the original on October 3, 2005. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Nelson, Josh (March 11, 2007). "School ties". The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  5. ^ "Deadline nears for non-high-school areas". Cedar Rapids Gazette: B1. March 20, 1966 – via NewspaperArchive.
  6. ^ a b c "REORGANIZATION & DISSOLUTION ACTION SINCE 1965-66" (PDF). Iowa Department of Education. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Siebert, Mark (September 17, 1995). "Survival of the littlest". The Des Moines Register. pp. 1B, 8B.
  8. ^ Bloom, Elizabeth (October 29, 1995). "Consultant thinks school consolidation phase nearing an end". The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. p. B4.
  9. ^ Patane, Matthew (April 30, 2018). "How we got here: School consolidation leads to 11 percent drop in number of districts". The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
  10. ^ Vujicic, Aleksandra (May 29, 2016). "More rural Iowa school districts plan to close their doors". The Des Moines Register. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  11. ^ Duffy, Molly (February 20, 2017). "Iowa school districts cope with when to consolidate - and when to stand alone". The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Further reading

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